PixlBit

Hey folks, got another batch of game reviews I’ve written lately over at GamerDad.com.  Please click on the links and maybe even post a comment or two here or there, I’d really appreciate it.  Also, pretty soon I’ll be heading out for PAX South again, so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that I have a safe trip there and back.  OK, on to the reviews!

Nintendo Badge Arcade (3DS)

This is a free-to-play game where you use a crane machine to pick up badges of nearly every Nintendo character imaginable.  You can then use those badges to decorate your 3DS Home menu, so that’s kind of cool.  You can pay a buck to have five tries at the crane machine, but the neat thing is that you can use a practice machine once per day and have a chance to win free tries at the main crane games.  And sometimes they just give you free plays randomly.  I’ve had the game since its release in late November, and I’ve gotten at least one free play per day, sometimes more.  I think there were only a couple of days I didn’t get any.  And the cool thing is that as of this writing, I’ve gotten over 200 badges and I haven’t paid a single cent, it’s all been through free plays.  So I don’t think that’s too bad.  Now, granted, I probably won’t get EVERY badge they have that way, but that’s OK.  I’m still enjoying it for what it is, but maybe that’s because I just like Nintendo characters.  The badges you win kind of remind me of those pins you can collect at Disney theme parks.  It would be kind of neat if there were a REAL Nintendo Badge Arcade where you could get real Nintendo pins, but it’s probably good that they don’t because I’d go broke!  Ha ha!

Pokémon Picross (3DS)

This is another free-to-play game, or free to start, rather.  Unlike Nintendo Badge Arcade, there will come a point in the game where you’ll have to start spending money to open new puzzles.  But I did about 30 before I got to that point, so that’s not too bad.  It’s just a Picross game where you reveal pictures of Pokémon.  The neat thing is that once you solve a puzzle, you can ‘catch’ that Pokémon and use it in later puzzles to help you solve them.  Some Pokémon can slow down the time, or reveal squares, and more.  I wish they would’ve just released this game in cartridge form without all those micro-transactions, though.  I probably would’ve bought it then.  I bet PixlCross will be better, though.

Adventure Time: BMO Snaps (iPad)

Of all the cartoon licenses out there, I’ve probably reviewed more Adventure Time games than any other!  In fact, most of my knowledge of Adventure Time comes from the games, as I don’t really watch the show much.  Usually the games star Finn and Jake, which is understandable since those are the main characters.  But now they have a game that stars MY favorite Adventure Time character: BMO!  As BMO, you must take pictures of holograms of various mischievous characters from the show to capture them.  You move around the tablet to aim, so it’s kind of like a cross between an arcade shooting gallery game and Pokémon Snap.  In fact, with a little tweaking, they could make this into a Pokémon Snap game, and it would certainly work on the Wii U or 3DS.  GET ON THAT, NINTENDO! 

The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and His Square Mind (3DS)

This is a kind of creative and quirky 3-D action puzzler where you play as an early 20^th century Baron who has gone a little cuckoo in the head.  You must explore his mansion to find out why.  In each stage, you must find a puzzle piece, a key, and then the exit in the rooms.  On the bottom screen, you can slide around each room like one of those sliding picture puzzles, and if a doorway connects two rooms, you can go through them.  That’s how you travel around.  It can be hard to visualize where to go sometimes, though.  It reminds me of the final dungeon in Skyward Sword; where you had to slide around rooms on a stone tablet map in order to get to them.  Anyone remember that?

Radio Hammer (3DS)

This is a simple rhythm music action game.  You play as a DJ and must swing a hammer in time with the music to swat away bad guys running toward you.  It’s not a bad game, but it is a little bit too simplistic, and the music isn’t that memorable either.  Plus it gets too hard after a while.  But I was able to get fairly far before that happened.

Bebop Puzzle Beat (iPad)

It’s just another variation on the match-three puzzle genre, this time with a 1940’s jazz band theme.  Sometimes to mix things up, the playfield spins around to throw you off, but the problem is many times it spins so fast you can’t even tap on anything!

Minecraft Story Mode: Episode 3 (PS3)

And finally is this review of Episode 3 of the Minecraft “point and click” adventure from TellTale. It’s pretty much like the other reviews, so I won’t go into it much here.  I’m still disappointed that they went with the “Walking Dead” game approach where they just lead you around by the nose.  I know that most reviewers probably wouldn’t review each episode separately, but when you are desperate for content, you do stuff like that.

Conclusions

And that’s all for now!  Thanks again for reading my reviews and blogs, and posting comments.  I really appreciate it.  Again, please pray that I have a safe trip to and from PAX South, and also pray that I may find a new job soon, as I’m still looking.  This actually won’t be my last blog before I go to PAX South, as I plan to post another blog before I go where I rank every game in the Mario RPG series.  Later!  --Cary